Whats lost
by blackkyu
Summary: Cloud hated Thursday's, and if you asked he'd gladly tell you why. But no one dared, not when he'd be standing in that lone corner of Seventh Heaven staring you down, as if daring, daring you to pick a fight. Sadly, he's soon to hate Thursday's even more as a mysterious miniature version of himself (followed by eerie creatures) wind's up in his care.


Disclaimer: I own naughta

What's Lost

Prologue: And so the story begins…

The screams were over, the thunder of a thousand fired guns silenced, the thump of falling bodies no longer present, and the rain of blood stilled, leaving no less than a river crawling across the walls and slithering along the floor.

The boy, drenched in red, did not cry, nor did he move, eyes empty of life. Before him lay the bodies of enemy and ally alike, but only one among them was a friend, only one among them had cared to call him by his name, and only one among them caused a single tear to slip down his seemingly emotionless face.

They were gone, everyone, enemy, ally, friend, there was nothing left besides the boy, and, perhaps, those…_things_. Rabbit's, the friend and the enemy alike had called them. Why Rabbits? The boy had wanted to ask, for the name was ridiculous, the…_things_, where nothing like the rabbits his beloved _other-long-ago-dead-friend_ had shown him in pictures. They were twisted things that twitched and jumped at nothing, with no minds of their own. Broken creatures, a brother had called them, broken sad failures that Mother used, for she'd use anything if it were to help her achieve her goal.

Still, only the boy and the Rabbits remained, though perhaps the Rabbits where already dead things, nothing more then re-animated bodies with no other purpose but to obey. Eyes still dull, drained, empty, the boy blinked and let out one long sigh before aimlessly walking towards the one machine still functioning, though barely, for it sparked and the data upon its operating system flickered, changing and shifting.

The Rabbits followed aimlessly, for they were given no order to follow, but the boy was all who remained who _could_ give orders. And they would follow those people anywhere, such was their programming.

The boy and two Rabbits made it on the machine before it gave one last spark and exploded, leaving truly nothing left besides rubble for the outside world to find.

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Cloud hated Thursday's, and if you asked he'd gladly tell you why. But no one dared, not when he'd be standing in that lone corner of Seventh Heaven staring you down, as if daring, _daring_ you to pick a fight. It was something he always did on Thursday's, as a means to cool off, though normal human beings wouldn't understand, then again, regular customer's had to have something that wasn't entirely 'normal' if they wanted to survive those random visit's the bar received from Vincent, Barrett, or any of the other Hero's.

Nonetheless, the reason for his necessary cool off time was before him, the drool falling from high above—a Sand Worm. Alright, so at his level Sand Worm's weren't exactly dangerous, but when they kept popping up every five seconds they became really, really, _really_ annoying, especially when their filthy drool would wind up on his beloved bike. With eyebrow twitching the swordsman seriously considered summoning Neo Bahamut and crushing the entire area. No amount of those disgusting eggs could get away from Giga Flare.

With a blink Cloud swiftly steered his mind to safer places, wishing not to contemplate how so many Sand Worms came to be.

A sigh signaled a slash of his sword and the thump of the Sand Worms head. And, keeping his sword out he took three steps forward before once again encountering another of those giant nuisances. Some might wonder why he had to go this way at all, crossing the desert, why not ride a chocobo, take a car, or ride on Cid's airship?

Well, he had a package to deliver, obviously, who to and why is none of our concern (yet), but he couldn't take a chocobo because the person who received the package (every blasted Thursday) was allergic, and the car made to much noise, scaring the strange creatures the person kept.

As for the airship, well, Cid couldn't spar every Thursday for our blonde hero now could he?

To ask what the package is would be in bad taste, for Cloud was never one to get involved in others private affairs, not after he'd had his own life so publically displayed. So every Thursday he took this same route and dropped off the unknown package, then headed off to Seventh Heaven and scared as many people as he dared before Tifa whacked him, smile ever present, even as he showed a slightly Sephiroth influenced side.

However, although today's random encounters where no different (annoyingly the same, so annoying in fact, he summoned Shiva ten times in a row), this time someone who _wasn't_ the recipient of the package answered the door.

Staring down into blank blue eyes Cloud could almost swear he heard Zack's voice shouting something about how adorable the miniature Cloud was. For the one who opened the door was truly small, perhaps around the age of ten, with dark blond hair, blue eyes, and blank expression almost identical to Cloud.

_Since when did I have a little brother?_

"Rion," the known voice of the true recipient called, "I thought I told you not to open the door for anyone?"

_Rion?_

"Sorry," the boy called back, voice and face declaring that he really couldn't care less, "I simply wanted to see another person's face, being stuck with only yours has begun to give me nightmares."

"Nightmares?" the voice shrieked, the sound of thumping feet echoing throughout the surprisingly long house.

"Yeah," the boy nodded, "I dream that I'll leave this place and the world is full of people with your face, a truly horrifying experience."

Cloud couldn't help the small smile that wormed its way across his face, the boy was amusing, and what he said was true, the recipient's face wasn't the most beautiful thing in the world. The swordsman almost pitied the boy for having to live with the disturbingly ugly old man, but he pitied the old man more.

"Such cruel things come out of your mouth child!" the old man cried as he appeared from around a corner, rushing up to the child and rubbing his fist into the fluffy blonde head of hair. "Shall I remind you who it was you owe you're life to? And who took you, and those creepy monsters you've got, in?"

_Creepy monsters? Though the first part makes sense, there is absolutely no way they're related. _

"Of course I remember," the child declared while trying to squirm his way out from under the fist, "you keep reminding me every time we take a bath!"

Now, Cloud wasn't exactly a stranger to the workings of perverted old men (Hojo for example), and usually he'd mind his own business, but hearing those words made his world come to a stuttering halt. For one the child looked like his little brother (if he ever had one) and secondly, the ugly old man was certain to be beyond desperate for some…company, and what better than a child who's indebted to you?

Of course, the reason why he kidnapped the child right then and there had nothing to do with the fact that he had a slight father complex due to two certain children (now teens), and it really, _really_, had nothing to do with the idea that, with this news, he can set the Turks on the old perv and thus end his annoying route through the desert. It would be over! No more annoying amounts of Sand Worms!

Sadly, over the years Cloud's personality had been finally showing the full effects of having his mind messed with. Thankfully he didn't become any more emo than he had been; however, he was sadly prone to random silly thoughts and taking certain rather ridiculous things too seriously and had grown a tendency to act on impulse. Alas, this meant that he forgot entirely about the Sand Worms he's going to have to deal with on the way back and the strange 'monsters' the old man had mentioned were with the child. Deciding to jump on his beloved bike and hit the road (desert) with the child practically glued to his back (for he'd slung the child—with great care, less he risk Tifa's wrath—on the bike).

Of course, both issues decided to rear their heads at the same time.

"Left!" the boy, Rion, shouted while clinging tightly to the swordsman, not daring to let go or even look back for fear that his hold would slip. Unconsciously Cloud listened, veering left just before a Sand Worm broke the surface, "don't bother with it!" the child instructed, peeking slightly to the right, "the Rabbits will deal with it."

_Rabbits? Wait why the hell am I listening to him?!_

"Where are we headed anyway?" the child asked some hours later after the rush of Sand Worms.

_Why is he so calm?_ Alarm bells rang in Cloud's mind, but he owed the kidnapped child an answer, for he'd acted on impulse again, even if he still didn't know why he trusted the kid…maybe it was the face.

"Seventh Heaven."

The blank stare he felt was expected. Silently they continued the ride through the desert for some time. But while Cloud found the annoying amount of Sand Worms, well, annoying, he found the lack of _any_ monster quite disturbing.

"The Rabbits dealt with them."

_Holy crap, he can read minds!_

"Oh?" was the cool reply, "What exactly are Rabbits?"

Cloud could practically feel the boy's stunned gaze, "So rabbits really don't exist in this world…how sad, they are so cute too…"

"Cute?"

"Well, not the Rabbits with me." The boy quickly clarified, "In fact, they aren't even really 'rabbits', just beings given the name for rather moronic reasons."

The swordsman was seriously becoming confused, but he pretended he understood. Actually, he didn't 'pretend' anything, he simply stared ahead and hhmmed in response.

"Ah, there they are."

_Those weird shambling things? Wait, the kid can see that far?_

"Return." Rion mumbled, and soon those 'weird shambling things' looked more like two walking corpses wrapped up all in black with rather lethal looking claws. "Rabbits?" It took all of Clouds will power not to cut down the strange beings then and there, the boy nodded. "Rabbits."

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**A/N: Yeah, as you've probably already figured when I write "rabbits" it means those cute little fluff balls, when I write "Rabbits" it means those monster-like things that are following Rion. Anyway, tell me what you think, I don't have much time and my mind wanders quit often as of late, so several stories are going on at once, and lots of memorization…and tests…so while I might not update this story all too quickly, it'll likely get done with the lure of reviews…**


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